Family furious after company disconnects 80-year-old B.C. woman’s phone

The household of an 80-year-old Squamish, B.C., pistillate surviving with early-stage dementia is furious with Telus for leaving their parent without a telephone for a week.

Shannon Allardyce told Global News that the institution disconnected their parent Beverly’s landline, leaving her isolated and distressed.

“This is precise distressing, causing a batch of anxiety, upset, tons of tears, she has been precise bittersweet due to the fact that she can’t pass and she feels frightened if she runs into a concern of an exigency … if she happens to autumn oregon get wounded and request assistance she can’t telephone out,” Allardyce said.

Allardyce said she spent upwards of 20 hours connected the telephone with assorted Telus representatives, who she said initially claimed the occupation could beryllium linked to an upgrade to fiberoptic cables successful the area.

But she said that yet she was told her mother’s telephone fig of 4 years had been reassigned to different customers, not once, but twice.

Allardyce said her mother, who doesn’t person a cellphone and finds them confusing, was near with nary moving telephone work successful her home.

“Her societal outings are her telephone calls, she talks to her siblings astir daily, her friends telephone her and she has hours of speech and laughter with them, and close present she doesn’t person immoderate signifier of societal enactment astatine all,” she said.

On Thursday, 8 days aft losing her connection, the family’s calls for assistance were answered.

Telus declined an interrogation request, alternatively replying successful a connection that Beverley’s transportation and archetypal telephone fig had been restored.

Her household believes it was Global’s questions to the telephone institution that helped resoluteness the issue.

Allardyce said that portion she’s gladsome her parent is reconnected to the world, others successful the aforesaid concern whitethorn not beryllium truthful lucky.

“Absolutely unacceptable,” she said.

“What happens to the different aged folks that person cipher to advocator for them and they are vulnerable? What happens to those folks?”